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Edith Birch
Edith Birch (1966-) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2000 to 2001, interrupting Elizabeth Madge's terms. She formed a minority government amid a cruel economic recession, implementing major austerity programs to return the economy to positive levels. The economy recovered to healthy levels, and, while Birch's party gained another seat in the 2001 election, she was unable to continue mastering the support of the third parties and lost her premiership to Madge. In 2003, dissatisfied with her party's increasingly pro-tax stance, she joined the Welsh Plaid Cymru party in protest. She retired from politics two weeks before the election. Biography Edith Birch was born in Aylesford, Kent, England in 1966, the daughter of a businessman and a solicitor. She qualified as a solicitor in 1989 and became involved in Conservative Party politics, being elected MP for Chatham and Aylesford. As the newly-minted party leader in 1997, she led the Tories to win the second-largest number of seats in Parliament after the Labour Party, which proceeded to have three consecutive Prime Ministers: Olive Daniels, Irene Cowsill, and Elizabeth Madge. Birch was an able Leader of the Opposition, presiding over her party's growth and survival as the second-largest party as the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru both made attempts at securing such a position. Birch was an opponent of broad taxes, instead favoring more focused taxes such as the land tax, the stamp duty, and the school bus tax. In the 2000 general election, Birch capitalized off of Britain's economic downturn to win the premiership in a 16-8 vote, winning the confidence of the DUP, Plaid Cymru, the SNP, the GPEW, and half of Labour; she had distinguished herself as a moderate, One-Nation liberal-conservative. Premiership Birch, who had made her reputation as an anti-tax conservative, supported the 20-2 vote to reimplement the housing tax, the failed 9-10 vote to implement a 4% electoral threshold, the 22-2 vote to implement road maintenance programs, the 13-6 vote to implement a stamp duty, the failed 7-15 vote to abolish public libraries (which she had once supported), the failed 11-15 vote to abolish the bus transport service, the failed 11-11 vote to abolish the European Union, the failed 10-11 vote to legalize prostitution, the failed 6-14 vote to keep the school bus tax, and the failed 8-10 vote to ban smoking in public. In the early 2001 elections, Labour fell to 22.59% and 7 seats, the Tories rose to 19.22% and 6 seats, Plaid Cymru flel to 14.44% and 4 seats, the Lib Dems rose to 13.79% and 4 seats, the GPEW fell to 12.23% and 3 seats, the DUP fell to 8.98% and 3 seats, the SNP fell to 5.63% and 2 seats, and UKIP fell to 3.11% and 1 seat. In the ensuing leadership vote, however, the Parliament's domination by center-left parties shone through when Madge was re-elected with 16 votes to Birch's 11. She continued to lead the party in opposition until 2003, when she decided to defect to Plaid Cymru in protest against her party's increasingly pro-tax stances. She retired two weeks before that year's election. Category:1966 births Category:British politicians Category:British Category:Politicians Category:English Category:Protestants Category:Anglicans Category:British prime ministers Category:Prime ministers Category:Plaid Cymru members